Ted (I'm-'cured'-of-the-gay) Haggard hustles up new church

[Joanne98]

On the comeback trail, Haggard incorporates a new Colorado Springs church. What the future holds for Haggard is anybody's guess.
Similar to the way the Little Engine that Could huffed and puffed and was able to pull a long train over the mountain, disgraced preacher Ted Haggard has his little engine huffing and puffing these days. After accompanying his wife Gayle on a successful book tour earlier this year promoting her tell-some book Why I Stayed: My Choice to Love, Hope, and Forgive -- (co-written with Angela Hunt) and setting up a prayer shop in their Colorado Springs, Colorado home, the Haggards' have decided to continue their climb down from scandal mountain by starting up their own full-fledged church.

Becoming St. James Church

With Ted Haggard now "cured" of the gay and, by his own testimony, not having "had one compulsive thought or behavior" since he began therapy, Ted and Gayle Haggard recently took a bold step and "incorporated to become a church," the Colorado Spring Gazette reported. "Becoming St. James Church brings with it a tax structure that helps `keep the accounting in order,' said Ted; the couple has been giving paid talks at U.S. churches for the past 18 months."

The church appears to be named after the passage "faith without works is dead" in the Book of James.

"I'm not surprised that Haggard is trying to return to the ministry," longtime Religious Right watcher Rob Boston told me in an e-mail. "He's really not qualified to do anything else."

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/5/27/104258/654

He just doesn't want to pay taxes!

[tanyev]

1. Uh-huh.

I give it...two years, tops.

[Warpy]

2. Yeah, that good works stuff is such an unattractive proposition

to people who were seduced by the promise that Jebus would make them rich beyond their wildest dreams if they just scrunched their eyes shut and believed.

[SharonAnn]

13. Today's "Elmer Gantry". A man with a hustle, but not a church .

[Joe Bacon]

14. Yeah, two years until he finds another muscle stud!

He'll fina another man of his dreams and run off to that Denver hotel for some more fun. He'll eventually wind up a full time resident at the Betty Ford Clinic when he slides into smoking the meth again, too!

[Bluenorthwest]

3. so he's just saying flat out that by calling themselves a church

they can evade taxes on the monies they already earn as individuals?

[HillWilliam]

4. Beats the hell out of doing real work

...if you can stomach it. You can't lead the gullible anywhere they don't want to go.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

5. What's going on Hill? n/t

[HillWilliam]

7. Nothing much down here

Got a couple of pretty-looking gardens in and that's kept me busy, not posting a whole lot. Still performing weddings. Spring keeps me hoppin'! I still stick my foot into a post here and there. What's going on up in the old home town?

[earth mom]

6. Haggard needs to stop lying to himself. nt

[Canuckistanian]

8. Ah, my favorite Crystal Methodist

I was wondering what he was up to.

[Rebubula]

9. LOL

Crystal Methodist....OK....that is funny.

[noel711]

10. Altho Haggard still is a caricature, something's cooking..

I got a totally different view of him on Larry King recently.

Altho I rarely watch King, I was flipping channels during a
commercial on the Rachel show.. and saw King interviewing some random
"christian" pop singer who recently came 'out' as a lesbian.

Countering her was one of those 'christian' pastors who hauled out
all the Leviticus prohibitians. I thought to myself: "Grab the popcorn,
this is gonna be good."

The young women didn't hold her own again the pastor, but then
Larry King pulled out the card up his sleeve: Ted Haggard popped
up to challenge the 'christian pastor' about christianity, and gays
... with scripture! Talk about a moment! He quoted the 'judge not lest ye be judged..'
passage, and supported the young woman.

This was a moment. I was stunned. Altho Haggard still has
major creepy factor, his non-judgemental view of gays as 'christians'
was remarkable. And the 'christian pastor' was speechless.

I agree: Haggard has only the training and impetus to pastor a church;
his background certainly is all the old evangelical crapola, but
if he's approaching ministry the way he stood up to the asshole on
Larry King.. I'd stay tuned. It'll be entertaining if nothing else.

[HudsonValley]

11. Ted Haggard and his Technicolor Queencoat

He has no shame and no credibility. Yet... he "preaches" a brand of religion that avoids critical inquiry and, thus, he will thrive again in our land. Ahh... but at least he's rid himself of his inner-Queen.

[Tailormyst]

12. Sadly he will repeat the cycle

Using drugs to cover his self hatred.

How horrible that we live in a culture that shames GBLT so much that they feel such hatred for who they are.